#gotham dialogue

[nyerusnova]

yeah... things are pretty yikes right now in the current batfam storyline,

but at least Tim is rocking those thigh-high boots and I just wanted to appreciate that for a sec

[kittyplayz1]

I love Gotham Knights. I’m gonna transcribe some of the dialogue from this game for y’all.

Tim: There are different kinds of Talons.

Dick: I feel like this is gonna be bad for your long term development.

Tim: So that means that there are different ways of making Talons.

Dick: Tim, please tell me you’re not gonna try and make a Talon in the Belfry.

Tim: I wouldn’t do that.

Dick:

Tim: Maybe just a bit of a Talon, for research.

Dick: TIMOTHY JACKSON DRAKE. DO NOT.

[shyjusticewarrior]

Jason calling Tim a nerd

Hypocritical tbh

[theshadowrealmitself]

Those jokes about Batman bodyslamming people over the most minor of things like jaywalking kinda annoy me since that’s not actually in character for him

But they become so much more tolerable when I pretend they’re jokes henchpeople make and send to each other, knowing damn well Batman always knocks them out because their crimes are actually bad but not wanting to admit it

Hench J, gesturing to their broken arm: And all I did was leave a piece of trash on the ground and he did this!

Hench 11: And it had nothing to do with the bombs you were planting?

Hench J: ….nope

[poppy-s-rampage]

Chapter 2: Welcome to Gotham!

Warnings: A little bit of blood, breakdown and emotional distress.

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Chapter 1! | Masterpost | Chapter 3!

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After finally closing up the last wound, Clockwork took a moment to look over his work. All of the young Halfa’s wounds have been sealed and treated with diluted ectoplasm. It was only enough to make the injuries look a week old at best but it will have to do.

The Ancient lifted his staff and in one swift movement ripped a hole in the fabric of reality. CW then carefully cradled Danny in his arms. Then both the Ancient and the Halfa stepped into the portal.

On the other side, they were met with an emaciated woman clad in a red and black Victorian dress accompanied by a small rose decorated matching hat. In her hand a small umbrella made of lace and what seemed to be black clouds. 

Her delicate snow white skin furrowed by ink black veins. Her blood red lips striking against the pallor of her face were pursed in worry. Her eyes, even while covered by her laced black veil, didn’t hide her apprehension.

The woman’s dress’s neckline was fashioned in the silhouette of a bat. Pearls scattered like falling stars across the red and black folds of the garment. Her waist encased in a tight bodice was embellished by small golden coins and feathers. The red fishtail spilling on the ground lazily trailing after its mistress.

The woman bowed her head, greeting the Ancient and his charge.

“Lord Clockwork.” Her raspy yet somehow suave voice resonated into the night.

“Lady Gotham.” He responded while slightly dipping his head down.

The city spirit glanced at the boy in the other’s arm. His bandaged form and torn clothes were not what first captured her attention. What truly horrified her was the state of the young Halfa’s core. Wrapped and cracked, barely a breath away from breaking and ceasing to exist.

Her own aching at the view, screaming at her to take the boy, wrap him in a bundle of blankets and nurse/guard him until at full health.

Being ended was reserved to the lowest of the low. It was a last resort that should only be used should the offender be irredeemable and too dangerous to be contained. To think that this almost happened and still could to her own king and one so young.

It was nauseating.

Lady Gotham forced herself to look away, turning her attention back to Clockwork.

“I assume he is the charge you want to bring into my care.”

“He is.” Clockwork responded.

The woman nodded, the smoke and black clouds in her umbrella spreading around her.

“Then if you will follow me.”

Lady Gotham faded and became one with the smog. The black mass zooming towards Midtown Gotham, the ancient of time on its heels.

They soon arrived in front of a small but clean apartment building. The two ghosts phased through the wall of the top floor only to be greeted by the view of a spacious yet cozy loft.

The unit was furnished with all the necessary furniture, non-ecto-contaminated food already stocked in the fridge. The space was designed in order to facilitate Daniel’s recovery. The boy would already be going through hell with his recovery and grief; it was best not to add insult to injury.

The city spirit having taken back physical form, leads Clockwork towards the bed on the second floor of the loft.

Once inside, the Ancient carefully sets Danny down on the bed and slowly covers him with a soft blanket. He then produced a pen and a neon green notepad from who knows where and started writing.

Lady Gotham approached the ghost.

“Lord ClockWork, pardon my intrusion, but wouldn’t it be best for you to explain the situation to the young king face to face.”

Clockwork paused.

“Young Daniel is too unstable to be dealing with the emotional distress my presence would bring. He has been hurt enough as it is.”

“Those excuses are nothing but the words of a coward.”

“Pardon me?”

“You are not. Are you truly running away in order to protect the boy or are you doing so to save yourself?”

“…”

“Tell me, Lord Clockwork. When the young king awakens, would he prefer to be met with an insincere apology letter from a coward or the genuine words of a man admitting to his mistakes?”

Clockwork couldn’t even utter a word.He didn’t have any excuse to defend himself. The city spirit was right.

“Your words are as sharp as ever, old friend.”

“I speak nothing but the truth, Master of Time. However, it seems to me that you are already set on your decision.”

“I-”

“I hope in your interest that you made the right choice.” The Lady snapped.

The woman turned away but not without leaving a few departing words.

“Or that at least you are prepared to face the consequences.”

Lady Gotham disappeared in a whirlwind of smog.

Clock work turned back to Daniel watching as his face scrunched up when the old ghost brushed a strand of hair away from his face.

His old core flared with parental love.

He looked so peaceful, as if nothing ever went wrong. However, In just a few hours, he would wake up and reality would come crashing down.

His bright and joyous protegee. The one he couldn’t help but adore every version of. The one he subconsciously adopted as his own child.

Clockwork couldn’t. He just couldn’t bring himself to face the hatred and pain his pupil would inevitably direct at him.

Gotham was right.

The Master of Time set down the notepad on the night table

He was a coward.

—-------

*A few hours later*

As the first few rays of sunshine broke through Gotham’s thick smog, a young black and white haired boy slowly woke up from his slumber.

It was comfortable, the soft fluffy blanket brushing against his achy skin. The warmth that comes with being cocooned in the safety of your own bed. Danny didn’t want to open his eyes. But he needed to wake up, in just a few moments Jazz would come knocking at his door to drag him to school.

The soft familiar knock never came, but the memories sure did.

Danny snapped his eyes open. Tears threatening to fall.

Clockwork -LiaR- ,the reveal, the capture -BeTraYaL-, the experiments -PaIN-, Jazz, Sam, Tucker,-PAINPAINPAIN mY FauLT- the wails, blood, explosion, death -MurDEreR!-, pain, Core breaking, burning, melting- PAIN PAIN PAIN! I ShOuLD be DeAD!-.

The Halfa now fully awake kicked the blanket enveloping him away and tried to get out of the bed.

His legs still injured and unable to support his weight gave out and he collapsed on the wooden floor in a heap.

The sharp pain of jolting his injuries and face planting further cemented to Danny that he wasn’t dreaming and that the nightmare was fully real.

“...no…NONONONONONO! Please, no! Please! I BEG YOU! PLEASE! JAZZ, TUCK, SAM PLEASE! DONT BE REAL! PLEASE!” Danny tried to say, but the only thing that came out were erratic breaths that could vaguely be associated with words. His damaged throat made it impossible to even breathe without it flaring in pain.

Choked and pained sobs filled the once silent room.

The young Halfa still collapsed on the floor cried , slowly curling up on himself hugging his knees.

---------------------

Chapter 1! | Masterpost | Chapter 3!

----------------------

See you next time!

[ghurab-alzilal]

🐍Sssssnakes sucksssss🐍

• Li'l Gotham #6 (2012)

Yesterday I was thinking about that Damian animal lover lore and I remembered that, despite practically having a zoo at home, Damian doesn't like snakes and well, that's it, I just wanted to share this curious fact with you in case you didn't know.

[l-just-want-to-see]

United States Junior Gymnastic Team of ‘88-‘89

Catherine Todd née Johnson & Mary Grayson née Lloyd: I hope we meet again (I’m letting you go)

@kindlespark / The Book Thief, Markus Zusak / ? / dc comics / Diary, Chuck Palahniuk / Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace / Always Gold, Radical Face / Us Against You, Fredrik Backman / @inanotherunivrse / I Wanted to Leave, SYML / ? / ? / Psychogeography, Chelsea Dingman / @leonardospoetry + me / On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong / Past Lives (2023) / A Letter to Love, Caitlyn Siehl / @archivegeo / In a Dream You Saw a Way to Survive, Clementine von Radics / Always Gold, Radical Face / Dorothea, Taylor Swift / Stand by Me (1986) / dc comics + On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong / Life After Death, Laura Gilpin / Lost Without You, Freya Ridings

[babsggordon]

What was the name of that horrible comic book that was literally a bet between writers to see which one could sell more copies and at some point the covers became women in lingerie that had nothing to do with the story, and because the writer lost the bet the last number of the series was literally a public advertisement to join the company the writter was stablishing???

[malevolentmrdual]

[geneticdriftwood]

I just finished reading green arrow 2023 and I’m thinking about a pre-nu52 dickroy au set shortly after bruce returns to life and dick goes back to being nightwing, but with lian’s current backstory mixed in. the timeline is pretty much standard pre-boot canon, with the major exception that lian “died” like a month before bruce did, and then got yoinked around through time and space, eventually landing in gotham.

so at the time the story starts, she’s ~14 and running around alleytown doing vigilante stuff as cheshire cat, and befriends damian, who’s ~12-13 and struggling to adjust to life with bruce back. they end up working an investigation together (damian doesn’t tell anyone about this) and end up accidentally teleported to a secret base on a distant planet. cue wacky home alone style alien base sabotage hijinks! but they’re gonna need to get home eventually, so they hack some comms to send a coded message back to dick where damians like “richard come pick me up also btw im here with lian she has blue hair and says she’s your niece”.

meanwhile dick is struggling to figure out how to be himself again now that bruce is back, and is still helping out too much in gotham while repressing his conflicted feelings about everything. he and roy aren’t really talking, because a month after roy’s daughter died, dick dropped everything and got sucked into gotham as batman and wasn’t there for roy at all. and there were reasons for that! bruce was dead! but roy did everything to be there for dick when donna died, and this is part of a pattern of dick’s, and there’s a lot of hurt and they haven’t talked about it at all.

but suddenly lian is alive and with damian on an alien planet! naturally dick and roy go on a rescue mission road trip (kory helps with space stuff), and in the process are forced to actually work through all their many years of built up issues. so they’re having vicious arguments and opening up about grief and working through painful memories, all while fighting their way through an alien jungle full of giant carnivorous bugs or something. and we cut between that and little cameos of lian and damian doing fun spykids-but-with-aliens antics! (and eventually we get a happy ending where dick commits to choosing roy & lian & damian & himself over bruce & gotham.)

[bothoutsiders]

word: guilty

"I've told you not to do that!" Red Hood snapped. "Do you want to fucking die?!"

Red Robin froze in place for a brief moment, confused and shocked by the sudden tone. Not even the fact that the godmother had grabbed him and almost broke his back fazed him. Not like Hood's sudden change of mood.

He stood up straight, putting away his bo-staff as he observed his partner.

Tim knew that Hood had no patience for someone like Batman but for everything else, everyone else (specially Tim), he had plenty. His mood and humor were only bitter when it was about his past, his own death or Bruce.

This wasn't like Jason. Did he do something wrong? Fighting criminals required some risk, maybe a lot of risks, but this was something they did daily. What had changed?

Red Hood put back his guns into the holsters and waited for him. Without saying a word, Red caught up to him and together, they left the scene.

Their patrolling turned quiet and Red began to feel awkward. There was a moment where he felt he was too anxious to continue fighting along Hood, but then he noticed something-

"I'm sorry."

Red Robin thought he had heard something but wasn't too sure. It took him a moment to drag his eyes off the pavement and when he looked up, he saw Hood looking at him.

"Huh?"

"I'm sorry for snapping at you." His voice wasn't a mumble anymore. "It wasn't your fault. I'm just... tired."

Red glanced back down immediately. There were blood drops on the pavement, and even if it was drizzling, it was not enough to wash it away.

"I shouldn't have done that." Hood continued and even through the helmet, Tim could feel the guilt in his voice.

Following the trace with his eyes, Red located the source almost immediately.

He frowned and walked up to Hood.

"You're not tired. Let me see."

The helmet couldn't show Jason's face but his voice was enough for Tim to know he was confused when he spoke. "What? See what?"

Since Hood wasn't moving, Red took the task of circling him, looking for anything that would give away what he was looking for. There was a darker patch of cloth on his back, near the shoulder. Red pressed on it gently just to have Hood making a painful sound and pulling away immediately.

"You're bleeding, Jason. It's probably hurting your back muscles too. You're not tired, you're wounded." Tim held his hand and smiled up at him. "It's okay, don't feel bad about it. Let's call it a night, okay?"

". . . Thank you."

[hood-ex]

Having a Homer Simpson "d'oh!" moment because I missed/forgot some pivotal information on the Zur situation that happened a few issues ago.

Zur created Failsafe and erased the memory of how to stop him. He also created a batcave under Bruce's batcave. (Batman #127 / Batman #136)

Bruce literally mentioned that Zur "poisoned the well" and put doubt in Bruce's head and heart. Bruce questioned, "What else has he done?" (Batman #136)

Bruce locked Zur away in his mind, and they were at odds with each other because Bruce didn't want Zur taking over, and Zur wanted out because he perceived Bruce's insecurities and doubts as his mind being "under attack." He wanted out to fulfill his purpose. (Batman #136)

In a flashback, Zur took over Bruce's body without Bruce even knowing. One minute, Bruce was trying to solve a case, and in the next, Zur was doing his own thing. When he gave up control to Bruce again, Bruce simply carried on with his previous thought as if he hadn't been personality swapped at all. (Batman #136)

Zur tried to tell Bruce what to do. Bruce snapped and yelled at him, reminding Zur that he (Zur) was in a cage. Bruce reassured himself, "He's in a cage. I'm in control." (Batman #137)

Now there was a moment in Batman #136 where Bruce started to panic because he couldn't see the future or whatever, so he didn't know how he could save everyone he loved, and he wondered how far he could go before it all burned away.

And then in Batman #137/Catwoman #57, Bruce realized that he no longer owned the manor, and he kinda started spiraling and talking about how even if he lost the manor/his wealth, he wouldn't lose his soldiers.

"They can't be bought. But they can be saved."

Notice the fact that Bruce used the term "soldiers." Because guess what? In Batman #127, Zur referred to Tim and the other members of the family as soldiers, and Bruce angrily corrected him.

"And Tim isn't my soldier! HE'S MY SON!"

SOOO. Do you see where I'm kinda going with all this? Bruce not knowing when Zur takes over? Zur being able to erase memories? Zur using "soldier" in his own dialogue color, and Bruce using the term "soldier" in his own dialogue color? Bruce saying that Zur "poisoned the well."

AND NOW, in today's issue, Zur forcibly took over to try and kill Joker again. And you know what was said?

Bruce: No! I'm in control! I'm--

Zur: You're not in control, we (Zur) are.

BRUCE CANNOT CONTROL ZUR. HE CANNOT. He thinks he can, and he thought he had it under control, but Bruce doesn't have shit under control!

[thejasontoddarchives]

Batman #416 (1988)

Robin 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular (2020)

Jason doesn’t leave it up to Bruce’s imagination to figure out whether he still cares.

[shyjusticewarrior]

Bruce: Dick, help, Barbara won't give me back my children-

Dick, Damian and Tim under each arm: I'm gonna stop you right there.

Bruce: *sighs* I'm gonna go find Duke.

Dick: *turns around*

Duke, on Dick's back: Sorry, Bruce.

[theshadowrealmitself]

Gothamites dressed up in realistic villain costumes for a Halloween party now dejectedly sitting in a temporary holding cell that Batman set up: can he hold us here? like, legally?

[breebirds]

They could never make me hate you, Gotham Knights, not with dialogue like “Oh, this is how Montoya feels!” from Dick after Talia jumps off a roof and vanishes